Laura Miti takes over donor funding

“TIZ, OASIS Forum, SACCORD have failed and Laura Miti provides the only hope”

Cooperating partners have decided to channel most of the budget funding related to governance issues, to the newly created NGO- Alliance for Community Action(ACA).

And donors have also opted to abandon or scale down the Zambia Governance Foundation(ZGF), an NGO that was set-up as a basket fund to finance civil society activities.

The ZGF was recently embroiled in a financial scandal over abuse and fraudulent use of resources.

Local NGOs also did not take kindly by foreigners deployed to run the administrative functions of ZGF as it was deemed as giving jobs to foreigners over local resource,

Civil society activist and blogger Laura Miti, heading a newly established NGO-Alliance for Community Action (ACA) has attracted sufficient attention and will likely displace most NGOs next year.

A senior member of the Cooperating partners disclosed that there was concern over the deteriorating good governance record and the perceived rise of corruption in the Zambian government that required an effective and active civil society to counter or stem the abuse.

Funds earmarked for the ZGF will go to the ACA and Miti’s new NGO is likely to attract further governance funding.

” She is vibrant. She is focused and she is making the right noises. You know Transparency International Zambia, SACCORD and others CSOs are literally dead! So the ACA is the hope to help tackle governance issues in Zambia, hence the radical decision”.

Laura Miti is currently running an interim anti-corruption activity called #42X42, a protest against government purchase of 42 Fire Trucks for $42million.

“she will be given more assignments. Soon we are giving her a focused campaign against abuse of public resources as published by the Auditor General. She represents the future of civil society in Zambia especially on governance issues”. He said.

When pressed to explain what will happen to funding to other NGOs, the source said;

“Something has to give. Something has to fall, CSOs we could have relied upon such TIZ, SACCORD, OASIS Forum and others have lamentably to speak against state abuse of laws and public resources and have failed to inspire or are heavily infiltrated by suspected individuals deployed by the state or its agents .”

Civil Society groupings have had shrinking funding since the height of funding they reached in the 1990s.

The source also disclose that cooperating partners will also create “a social media war-room” to recognize the rising influence of Cyber, internet and social media based campaigns.

“We have recognized Laura’s use of social media. This program will be supported in a scientific and large scale manner to help reach especially young people, who have been identified as change agents. A social media war-room will be set up to spearhead this campaign”.